Lawmakers look to boost agricultural exports to Cuba

Lawmakers at a House Agriculture Committee hearing on Wednesday pushed to expand American agricultural trade with Cuba.

“I believe there lays an opportunity — albeit a rather narrow one — to make changes that will positively benefit both agricultural producers here at home while contributing to economic growth in Cuba,” said Chairman Michael Conaway (R-Texas) in his opening statement.

{mosads}Conaway and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) are co-sponsors of the Cuban Agricultural Exports Act, which would permit private financing for agricultural exports to Cuba.

Conaway said the Castro regime’s “heavy hand” still controlled Cuban agriculture but that their legislation could spur positive change.

Peterson also said more must be done to boost American agricultural exports to the island nation.

“We’ve had this policy for 50 some years and it hasn’t worked,” Peterson said of the decades long U.S. embargo. “I don’t know if opening this thing up is going to work, but clearly what we’re doing now isn’t working.”

The U.S. eased agricultural export sanctions to Cuba in 2000, but many restrictions still exist. President Barack Obama’s effort to normalize relations with the island nation has also spurred exports in recent months. Experts, though, told the panel more could be done.

Cuba imports upwards of 80 percent of the food for its 11 million people annually, totaling $1.9 billion in 2014, and the U.S. could play a larger role, according to Luis A. Ribera, program director for International Projects for the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University.

Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) said lifting remaining trade barriers “makes good business sense.”

But several lawmakers raised concerns that boosting trade could bolster the Castro regime, a view shared by Mauricio Claver-Carone, the executive director of Cuba Democracy Advocates.

A representative from CoBank, one of the nation’s largest private providers of credit to agricultural businesses tried to allay those concerns.

“This will provide meaningful benefits to your constitutions, U.S. agriculture, our rural communities, and the broader U.S. economy,” said Karen Lowe, a CoBank senior vice president, who pushed for expanding markets for exports.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), though, urged caution, saying more needed to be done to ensure easing restrictions didn’t prop up the Castros.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) agreed, but expressed support for the legislation on private financing.

“Whatever we do going forward, we need to keep in mind the people of Cuba,” Scott said.

“I’m not interested in helping the Castros, but not trading with Cuba is not helping the people of Cuba.”